With a few exceptions, symptoms of mental health disorders tend to be similar to feelings that every child experiences, such as sadness, anger, suspicion, excitement, withdrawal, and loneliness. The difference between a disorder and a normal feeling is the extent to which the feeling becomes so powerful as to overwhelm and interfere with the activities of normal life or cause the child to suffer. Thus, doctors must use a significant degree of judgment to determine when particular thoughts and emotions stop being a normal component of childhood experience and represent a disorder.

Disruptive behavioral disorders affect mainly behavior. The behavior is not intentionally disruptive but may disturb others, including teachers, peers, and family members. These disorders include

Autism spectrum disorders may involve some combination of impaired social relationships, a restricted range of interests, abnormal language development and use, and, in some cases, intellectual impairment.

Diagnosis

For some disorders, blood tests

Observations

For some disorders (such as fragile X syndrome, Rett syndrome, and DiGeorge syndrome), the diagnosis can be made based on a blood test to check for specific abnormalities.

For other disorders, no test can confirm the diagnosis. Doctors rely on observations of parents and teachers and on those made during the office visit to help determine how severe symptoms are.

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knowledge

Behavioral and developmental problems can become so troublesome that they threaten normal relationships between the child and others or interfere with emotional, social, and intellectual development. Which of the following describes the treatment goal for behavioral problems in children?

Getting children to want to change their behavior
Getting parents to explain why they said "no"
Getting parents to punish undesirable behavior
Getting parents to reward good behavior

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